Race and Yoga: A Grassroots and Feminist Publication

A grassroots and feminist publication, Race and Yoga only exists because women dreamed up, believed in, and labored for this project.Race and Yoga initially began as a working group, which I founded in 2011 while still a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley (UC-Berkley).At the time, I was practicing and teaching yoga in California Bay Area studio spaces and working as a yoga instructor at Alameda County Juvenile Hall sharing the practice with incarcerated youth.I wanted to have critical discussions with others about the politics, possibilities, and violences of yoga to gain insights which I hoped would help me become a more responsible and effective yoga teacher.The Race and Yoga working group brought together peoplemany of whom were yoga teachers and practitioners outside of academiawho likewise desired to have these conversations.The female leadership structure for Race and Yoga was never by design, but it was women who were compelled to come forward and take on uncompensated labor to further the field of critical yoga studies.As much of the scholarship in Race and Yoga